Since we started bringing hefty hipped Irish girls overseas to watch our children in our homes, and giggled at their contractual request to NOT be fed lobster more than three times a week...

These colonies were pretty much founded upon indentured servitude, social and legal expulsion, the religious nutters, and the naive who said, "Yeah, this empty land sounds like it will be fun to tame!"

hubiestubert:Since we started bringing hefty hipped Irish girls overseas to watch our children in our homes, and giggled at their contractual request to NOT be fed lobster more than three times a week...

And by "watch our children", we mean to have sex with, and by "fed lobster", we mean oral sex.

You are kidding, right? This country was founded on indentured servitude. Then we got smart and upgraded to full on slavery, but then we got rid of slaves by replacing them with sharecropping which was basically indentured servitude part 2. That period lasted for what, 80 years?

Then there was a period between the 1940s and 1980s when nothing happened, oh except for huge huge taxes on the wealthiest. Which oddly enough led to a period of explosive growth (which was in part due to the fact that ours was the only major capitalist economy not completely destroyed by WWII). Then came the rise of the religious right and Nixon and Reaganomics, so by 1980 the wage disparity started ticking up again.

This battle is not new. We have always been at war with powerful, greedy f*ckers. Humanity in general, really.

The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

SlothB77:When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have.

SlothB77:The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

If you are just going to make stuff up, there is no point debating you.

People whine about how it's not fair that we use the example of Wal Mart employees receiving so much public assistance translates to a direct subsidy of Wal Mart. However, if that assistance ended tomorrow, what would happen? Would people still show up for work if they couldn't survive on that amount of money?

No, they would either stay home and say F-it, or they would show up to work and Unionize to demand more money. Raising the minimum wage forces the business and the consumer to split the costs of that increase (the ratio depends on how much we need that product and how much could be automated etc.). This is preferable to the current system where all of the deficit is payed for by the tax payer via public assistance.

SlothB77:The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

That's some high-density weapons-grade paid-troll derp right there.Try again someplace else with a dumber audience.

mrshowrules:SlothB77: The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

If you are just going to make stuff up, there is no point debating you.

There's no point debating him, period. If he DOESN'T just drop that turd and leave, he'll just continue to spout bullshiat until he gets bored and wanders off to shiat on another thread.

Work yourself to the bone, sacrificing all worldly pleasures and personal relationships and you are guaranteed to succeed.And if you still don't, it's because you did something bad like voted Democrat or had impure thoughts about your nephew on the High School football team. Perv.

SlothB77:The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

bdub77: This battle is not new. We have always been at war with powerful, greedy f*ckers. Humanity in general, really.

It is a little different this time. They are convincing a bunch of low to low-middle income people that no one is smarter than them and no one works harder than them *unless* they are blatantly and obviously wealthy (and only then if said blatantly wealthy individuals agree with their politics).

bdub77:You are kidding, right? This country was founded on indentured servitude. Then we got smart and upgraded to full on slavery, but then we got rid of slaves by replacing them with sharecropping which was basically indentured servitude part 2. That period lasted for what, 80 years?

Then there was a period between the 1940s and 1980s when nothing happened, oh except for huge huge taxes on the wealthiest. Which oddly enough led to a period of explosive growth (which was in part due to the fact that ours was the only major capitalist economy not completely destroyed by WWII). Then came the rise of the religious right and Nixon and Reaganomics, so by 1980 the wage disparity started ticking up again.

This battle is not new. We have always been at war with powerful, greedy f*ckers. Humanity in general, really.

Are you saying that the history of civilization is the history of class struggle?

SlothB77:The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

Now here's an interesting exhibit; look at the neoliberal Austrian, kids.

This primitive creature has an extremely exaggerated sense of self-importance. Their dwindling habitat is contained in the wealth their parents work to give them in their youth. We don't even think they're aware of a world outside this habitat.

vernonFL:Working a minimum wage job is not 'The American Dream'. At least I hope not.

They shipped low skill jobs that majority could easily do and live a life that could easily afford provide basic services like rent and a car off to China and Mexico and automated the rest. Now you have millions of citizens chasing this education dream that will furnish them with the jobs that will at the very minimal have the job that at least pays rent. The dream is dead. If you have that job then count your self lucky.

God has predetermined those of us who shall be allowed entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is impossible to look at one another and directly identify those that are predestined for Salvation and those who are not.

What we can observe, however, is success and work ethic. Indirectly, we can see those blessed with divinity and saving through their actions on Earth.

The successful are there because of unrelenting determination and hard work; their efforts are maximized, and are well-off because of it.

Those who are struggling are merely living life according to their predetermined destiny: the weak, the soft, those lacking resolve in the work place will find life difficult and financial strain plentiful.

We know who God has chosen: they're at the top of the spiritual ladder, so it would follow that here, in the realm of man, they are similarly on top.

Which is why, of course, it isn't simply unfair to take their due earnings -in doing so you are stealing from God. Is there any other act so violently irresponsible?

A deal was struck with the Great Depression kids. Society told them if the ruined their youth by killing Hitler, this country would have their back for the rest of their lives.

It worked out pretty well until the Vietnam era. What really killed us was the pricing structure. It ceased to be cost plus. Manufacturers consolidated then left the US. Products were priced by what other similar products were selling for. Price fixing, if you'll have it.

I used to enjoy watching "free" broadcast college football games. Apparently, next season I'll have to pay for cable, digital cable and sports package tiers just to watch SEC football games. And if you follow college football, the SEC is the corruption capital and thus the powerhouse conference in college football.

Or look at internet access speeds. Monopolies at most local levels allow cable companies to cripple speeds. And charge out the wazoo for those snail-paced speeds. And they charged my fried who is fighting cancer out the ass for a modem that is slower than the one I bought 4 years earlier. Competition would change that situation.

It's really too bad that Bill Maher is making this point and not someone else. Way too many people just ignore or go against anything he says because he's pissed them off in some other instance and instead of thinking about it and realizing that he was probably right, it's much easier to just dismiss him. The problem is that this stuff IS important and in today's climate it's much easier for most of these people to just retreat into the echo-chamber when they are faced with someone like Maher.

SlothB77:The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

SlothB77:No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

Explain the fashion industry if smart money doesn't pay more than something is worth.

SlothB77:The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

I know your partially trolling, but either way, the existing system is.1) Pay people next to nothing.2) Provide a social net such as food stamps,medicare,etc to provide for those who aren't paid enough.

This shifts the burden from the employers to the public in general and creates inefficiencies in total.We are trying to shift the burden to the employers which yes, will raise cost and shift the burden to all of us, but I'd rather pay more at the register than have the government take up the slack and pay more in taxes. This is the same with the ACA, it shifts the burden onto people and their employer to pay their own medical expenses. But yes, paying for your own cost is crazy isn't it???

LordJiro:mrshowrules: SlothB77: The irony here is that Maher wants to force businesses to pay people a certain salary, even though those same people are willing to accept less money for the same work. Who is the indentured servant in that scenario? Businesses.

When health care costs for business went up due to the ACA, businesses responded by reducing the number of full time employees they have and increasing the number of part time employees they have. The same will happen if the minimum wage is raised. Businesses will respond by reducing staff.

No matter how much you regulate and tax businesses, they will always find a loophole. Smart money is not willing to pay taxes or more for a product or service than it is worth. If you over-regulate, the unintended consequences may be that the little guy gets hurt even more.

If you are just going to make stuff up, there is no point debating you.

There's no point debating him, period. If he DOESN'T just drop that turd and leave, he'll just continue to spout bullshiat until he gets bored and wanders off to shiat on another thread.

Really? Because it sounds to me like someone made a decent point. He cited a source in the Economist which is legit & now there's a whole bunch of name-calling & an inability or unwillingness to refute his point.

You look more foolish when you resort to name calling & you make your position less credible as a result.

SevenizGud:Why work if Uncle Sucker gives me the same shiat out of YOUR wallet?

This is one of the dumbest arguments you can have on this topic. Live on welfare and foodstamps for a year and then come back and tell us how fantastic it was. There are abusers in the system but the pervasive belief that some right wingers have that it's all sunshine and roses to live below the poverty line is so pants on head retarded that I'm surprised that you manage to operate a keyboard.